Wednesday, October 12, 2011

because in the "main" test administered by the Fukushima prefectural government, none exceeded the stringent national provisional safety limit of 500 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium.

The highest was from a district in Nihonmatsu City, 470 becquerels/kg (page 9 of the linked PDF file). But not to worry, rice farmers of the particular district. The Fukushima prefectural government will buy up all your rice, according to Kyodo News English (10/12/2011), probably using the money from the national government (i.e. nation's taxpayers' money).

It's a win-win for Fukushima rice farmers who went ahead and grew rice. If tested for less than 500 becquerels/kg of cesium, they are all set to sell. If tested close to 500 becquerels/kg, the government will buy the crop. No information on what the prefecture is going to do with the rice it buys up, but I suspect it will find its way to the market eventually. It's a lose-lose for a minority of conscientious farmers in Fukushima who chose not to grow at all this year - no sales, no compensation. Good luck, consumers, finding radiation-free rice and fighting critics who tell you that you are selfish on insisting on clean food.

Diary of my temporary return to Iitate-mura in early October: The result of the radiation test for the rice came in. Surprise, surprise. 2,194 becquerels/kg[of radioactive cesium] in brown rice, more than 4 times the provisional safety limit. Since it was so high I arranged for the re-testing, just in case. As to the rice crop in the rice paddy, it has to be mowed down by the end of this week. So the new crop of rice will be feeding the wild boars.

He had said in his earlier tweets that when he had to leave the village in spring, he sprinkled the seed rice on his rice paddy and let the nature take its course instead of throwing it away. To his great surprise, the rice thus sowed directly (as opposed to planting carefully cultivated seedlings) and grown without any fertilizer or pesticide and without any tilling grew better than ever. He duly noted the irony, but also now says, "If I ever grow rice again, I will do the direct sowing and do none of the maintenance work. The traditional way of growing rice by planting seedlings, using fertilizer and pesticide, tilling, weeding and other constant care is nothing but a conspiracy by the agribusiness and JA (agricultural producer co-op)."

Way to go, farmer A1271. I hope you can get to grow crops again somewhere cleaner.

Adult consumers have a choice and a lot of them are choosing not to buy agricultural products coming from Fukushima and other parts of Japan's Tohoku region. School kids don't have that luxury and I'm afraid much of this "radioactive rice" will end up in public school lunches far and wide (as other radioactive contaminated foods already have). There has got to be a better way to ensure public health while maintaining the financial health of farming communities.

What bugs me most is the tireless insistence by the authorities - not just in Japan, but all over the world - on a "safety level" compared to a "natural background radiation". I may be wrong and feel like an alien that landed on Earth yesterday, but I don't think that is (or was, at least) "natural" to find Ce-137, I-132 and St-90 in our environment, much less in our food.

93 grams of Ce-137 killed four, contaminated hundreds (maybe thousands) and the decontamination effort resulted in more than 11000 tons of radioactive waste in Brazil, in the 80's. This stuff is deadly.

By the way, I'm puzzled by the lack of uranium in any of these lab reports, since march. U-238 decays fast into neptunium 238 and then plutonium 238, is it? But what about U-235?

I notice that 'authorities' dismiss radiation levels from prior nuclear testing as 'natural background'. So, I guess after awhile, they'll refer to Fukushima levels and those added throughout Japan by Fukushima, as 'natural' the next time a reactor melts down.

It also puzzles me the comparison with natural background (or bananas) radiations. From the few I understood about cancer, in many cases (if not all?) it is due to nano-particles (created by combustion-then incinerators, weapons or nuclear fusion of course) getting into the body (organs or blood or skin...) and making it to react to the "stranger" by isolating it with over production of cells...the then cancer cells. It is logical that radioactivity coming out of a nuclear fusion and the nano-particles released is a major cause of concern. Correct me if I am wrong. I wonder if natural radiation implies nano-particles that can enter the body and fix themselves into it.

Given these radiation in food numbers, let's try to project the future numbers. How much radiation is being relesed into the environment at Fukushima every day now? How does this compare to previous releases after the catastrophy? What percentage of cooling water is being recycled now by the Frech Areva process? With long half life radionucleotides, significant continuing releases,and continuing spread,not to speak about the nuclear cores finding their way into ground water, means only increasing radiation in food in the future. With all of Japan's brain and computing power some organization should be able to provide resonable predictions. This to enlighten the part of the public that wants to be informed, not kept in the dark. So today its 500 what about tomorrow when it reches 1000 or 2000. What to do then, declare it safe, hear no evil speak no evil. There has to be a better way to manage this.

May be it will be mixed with good rice to lower overall readings as they did with burn material ? … higher amounts were mixed with lower amounts to equal out to the burn limit per kilo ? The governments buying radioactive rice ?

Will they mix with good rice to lower over all readings ?What do you think ?

Much of Fukushima rice will end up in restaurants and school lunches. This year in particular, because the price is much lower. Besides, if the rice from different locations are blended, then the seller doesn't need to disclose the origins. The label will be "made in Japan", and no one will know exactly where in Japan.

About my coverage of Japan Earthquake of March 11

I am Japanese, and I not only read Japanese news sources for information on earthquake and the Fukushima Nuke Plant but also watch press conferences via the Internet when I can and summarize my findings, adding my observations.

About This Site

Well, this was, until March 11, 2011. Now it is taken over by the events in Japan, first earthquake and tsunami but quickly by the nuke reactor accident. It continues to be a one-person (me) blog, and I haven't even managed to update the sidebars after 5 months... Thanks for coming, spread the word.------------------This is an aggregator site of blogs coming out of SKF (double-short financials ETF) message board at Yahoo.

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